


In the Still of Your Hands

by roseandheather



Category: Code Black (TV)
Genre: F/M, First Kiss, Moving On
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-29
Updated: 2016-02-29
Packaged: 2018-05-23 23:13:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6133432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roseandheather/pseuds/roseandheather
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He wasn't sure when she knew she was finally ready. </p><p>But then, he wasn't sure when he knew he was, either.</p><p>Of love, loss, and moving on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the Still of Your Hands

He wasn’t sure when she knew she was finally ready.

In all fairness, he wasn’t sure when _he_ knew _he_ was ready, either. 

All he does know is that one day - just like so many other days, too many to count, really - he offers his elbow to Leanne Rorish. She tucks her hand in the crook and looks up at him, all big dark eyes and a smile quirking at the corners of her mouth, and his heart turns over.

He realizes, then, that the pain of Gina’s loss has receded to an aching memory - that their relationship, once so vibrant and real and inescapable, has faded to misty watercolor, no less beloved, but no longer his present - or his future.

And instead there is Leanne, lips quirked in a pixielike smile, eyebrow raised, energy vibrating off her like a constant, background hum.

Leanne, covered in blood, cheeks hollow, lashes damp with tears she will never allow herself to shed.

Leanne, frowning at a budget report, brain whirring as she searches for answers.

Leanne, smiling proudly at Christa as Christa barks out orders.

Leanne, demanding fair due for her nurses, and looking unaccountably surprised when he tells her, almost on impulse, that she is far better at the job than she thinks she is.

Leanne, all soft eyes and gentle smile, telling him, “Down here, it’s people.”

Leanne, to whom he has been drawing ever closer, day by day, without even knowing it, like a tiny planet spiraling closer and closer in orbit around a bright, shining star.

Leanne, who - has just gently kicked him in the shin.

“Ow,”  he says, reflexively.

“Don’t be a baby,” she chides, but she’s still smiling, and her hand is still tucked in the crook of his arm, and he knows that if he doesn’t do this now, he never will. 

“Leanne,” he interrupts her, cutting off an arch question about where his mind has been, “unless you tell me not to, I’m going to kiss you.”

“Took you long enough,” is all she can say before his lips touch hers, tasting, so careful, because he doesn’t dare to break this spell.

_Took you long enough.  
_

The words sink through his mind, through his heart, and settle somewhere in his gut - where, quite predictably, they catch fire.

She breaks away with a gasp, and it’s only then that the realizes he must have tugged the tie from her hair - that it’s falling in soft, loose waves, wild and free.

“You shouldn’t have done that until my shift was over,” she murmurs, almost in wonder, but her eyes are glowing.

He can’t help it. A part of him has wanted to do this since the moment she sputtered and stammered when he effectively dragooned her to be ER director.

He turns around, slides both his hands to her waist, and lifts her effortlessly into his arms.

“Oof,” she says in surprise, but her arms slide around his neck, and she presses her cheek to his.

“Put me down,” she says, without so much as an ounce of force behind the words.

“No.”

“Okay.”

By the time he sets her down again - eyes bright, hair a-tumble, beaming as radiant as the Northern Lights - he’s already floating on air.


End file.
